‘I had to be in the mood, and I was always in the mood.’

Al Lyon may be known to his neighbors in Van Nuys as Mr . Fixit, but audiences knew him as the Gooey Gob or the Mad Man From Mars during his touring days as an ad - lib comic and musician. At 75 , Lyon still fixes an occasional toaster and keeps his customers laughing.

When I started Mr. Fixit about 20 years ago in Studio City, I had a lot of tools. I had more tools than junk. Now I have more junk than tools. I’ve saved everything I’ve had, man, pieces and parts. Look at all the shoe boxes full of pieces and parts. I’ve got 500 shoe boxes and no shoes.

This one’s got video camera cable. Here’s antenna cable, switches, metal, just a pile of stuff that could be in any dumpster, sockets, most of this is obsolete, knobs--you save all the knobs on TVs when you junk them--then you’ve got bolts, bolts, bolts and nuts, bulbs, fuses, and rubber pieces, little grommets and little pieces.

Then you have switches, used ones and good, and then springs, all kinds of springs--from a typewriter, you get a whole cupful of springs--resistors large and small, photographs (these are old photographs), 110 plugs, toaster parts, new, special steel cord. Steel is a good thing to put on anything that uses over a thousand watts, but it costs a mess of money. Knobs, more knobs. Here’s some O rings, taps and dies--the tap makes the thread on the nut, and the die makes the thread on the bolt. Toaster elements. I save all those things. Here’s tubes, now. I save all the tubes.

I was in show business. I sang, danced and played four instruments, and I was a one-liner. I could stand up for three hours and just keep talking. I can’t remember any of them now, man, but if a customer comes in, all of a sudden, boom, a one-liner comes out, and I get a laugh.

I had a skullcap with two springs sticking out, with little balls on the ends. My act was all crazy. There was a tune named “I’m Not Lazy, I’m Just Dreamin,’ ” so I changed it to “I’m Not Crazy, I’m Just Dreamin.’ ” I did a rubber-legs routine playing the guitar. I found out you had to be something different; there were too many tap dancers.

I was successful in the ‘30s when the Depression was on. I was around Chicago, north to Duluth, Wisconsin, Montana, into Canada, you name it, I’ve probably been there. I had to keep going from one town to another, bang, boom, boom, to get my kicks.

I never did understand the Depression, because I was busy daytime and nighttime, too. In the daytime I’d do anything that would make money. Some people just had no initiative. I’d pick out a place, and I’d go in and say, “Hey, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap,” don’t give the guy a chance to ask any questions; and he’d say, “You’re hired.” I always had something to do at night. I played the banjo with a band when I was 14 years old. That was a good kick.

I could sit up there on stage and sing and play guitar and listen to my radio on my hearing aid at the same time. One night in San Francisco I was doing my act and listening to Gen. MacArthur’s speech about old soldiers never die, they just fade away.

San Francisco was a fast town, man. It was cool and fast. Los Angeles was wide open and a little on the slow side. I was with Hal Pierce in San Francisco in 1933 on the Mutual Broadcasting System. I played the bass fiddle. I’d ride the bass fiddle like a horse, playing at the same time. But today the people who are in San Francisco are not the same. All the old-timers are gone.

I never wrote anything down. It was always spontaneous. I had to be in the mood, and I was always in the mood. In the old days, we were taught that the spontaneous way was the best way to get laughs. You surprise yourself too, when you’re laughing inside. Today the guy has to have five writers and four psychiatrists and a lawyer on the side to make sure he doesn’t make a mistake. What a kick, ain’t that a crazy business?

When I get to be a hundred years old, I hope I’m doing the same kick as I am now. I think you have to keep busy, you have to keep going, you gotta keep talking, and you gotta keep listening.